We all make mistakes

We all make mistakes. Sometimes, they’re small and fixable. Other times the course of our lives are changed forever. I’m just as guilty as the next person. When I was in elementary school the church I grew up in was building a new sanctuary. The construction crew had already dug a deep base for the basement foundation and there was mud and puddles of water everywhere.

My friend and I thought it would be a great idea to make a bunch of paper airplanes and throw them out the second floor window into the construction pit. When you’re little sometimes ideas seem like good ones. Looking back, I can’t even tell you how many apologizes I had to make and what embarrassment I must have caused my parents. My dad was a deacon at church.

Looking back years later I realize how dumb and stupid this was. We’ll all heard the expression “kids will be kids.” I laugh now but I’m sure I was grounded. It was a mistake and the first of many I made in my childhood. People often ask in conversation how most of guests came to be struggling with homelessness. Was it choices in life? Was it drugs? Sometimes, this is the cause but no one ever imagined they could end up living on the streets. The loss of a job, the death of a spouse, a work injury; these are all things I hear regularly from our guests that helped to contribute to where they have ended up in life.

What I love about the idea of grace is that Jesus died on the cross for our mistakes. He gave up his life for our sins. He paid for the things I don’t even know I am going to do yet. But, his grace comes with a price. We’re called to believe and be servants of the Lord. We are equipped with different skills and opportunities to serve and set a “Christ like” example in our life every day. Ministry is not a job, but a lifestyle. It’s supposed to drive our motivation and actions each day. The journey is not always easy.

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” – James 1:22

Ask God to make the scriptures real in your life this week. Don’t just hear the words of the scriptures but ask God to make your heart open to truly living out what we are called to do as followers of Christ. Don’t be so hard on yourself for your mistakes. We have a chance to change every day but we must let Christ be the center of our lives and the light that guides us.